Other Member Spotlights

Peter Haviland

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Chief Architect

Q: How long have you been involved with The Open Group?
Approximately 6 years – basically since the development and publication of TOGAF 9

Q. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
As a consultant I help clients identify new business opportunities through the implementation of new technologies. Thankfully, because of the pace of new development, this is an exciting area and my job it seems is never done. I also spend a lot of time managing the architecture practice within EY – training our consultants, recruiting new talent, identifying new business partners, winning new business and managing our talent pool to best serve our clients. Finally I work with bodies such as The Open Group to develop and publish new standards in this space – I'm a firm believer that in order to tackle tomorrow's complex challenges, we need standards and methods that are up to the task.

Q: Why did your organization become a member and what does your involvement look like?
At EY we are investing heavily in building a better working world and we are very keen to contribute to The Open Group as an industry body that shares a complimentary vision. Boundaryless Information Flow will only assist in the realization of this vision and we are especially excited about the prospect of working on standards and approaches that allow organizations of all shapes and sizes to manage themselves simply, effectively and profitably. Interest areas related to information security, controls automation, cloud adoption, and Open Platform 3.0 are examples of areas where EY's breadth of services across Transactions, Tax, Assurance and Advisory can contribute to the future.

Q: How has membership in The Open Group benefited you, your organization and the industry at large?
As a consulting firm EY has a need to develop a global capability that can team, un-team, and re-team very effectively in order to serve the needs of our clients. A set of standards for our professions is crucial to our ability to do this; as is the development of technical capabilities such as architecture to identify and mitigate risk during business transformation. I believe that because we have a global capability that is anchored on standards such as TOGAF our clients are getting the most highly trained individuals who understand the leading practice standards, which will in turn identify opportunities sooner, architect solutions with greater precision, and drive operational optimization to industry defining levels.

Q: What contributions do you hope to bring to The Open Group?
Personally I hope to continue the great interactions we have as members behind closed doors, taking on common problems without any sales talk or smoke and mirrors, and working with like-minded people who share a passion for progressing this profession. I hope I can contribute as others contribute and so I have a tough job to make sure I bring my latest experiences and thinking to the table and participate in an open and honest manner as befits membership. My role at EY gives me access to how some of the world's largest and most complex organizations are tackling these challenges – I hope to bring these experiences to the working sessions.

Q: Why is it important for other organizations to join The Open Group?
I am forever impressed with the openness and frankness of The Open Group's conversations. When you attend a conference you meet real world practitioners who talk about the problems and solutions they themselves have worked – you don't get salespeople, you don't get advertising messages – you get problems, and you get solutions. Consequently I think it's important for organizations to join groups like The Open Group so they don't reinvent the wheel and waste a lot of time and resources playing catch up, but rather accelerate themselves so they can become part of the conversation and start working the same problems as other members. The only way the profession will succeed and move forward is if we take the learnings from elsewhere, apply them to ourselves, learn from the experience, then return with our own learning to progress the group forward.

Q: What are your hobbies?
Architecture, of course! I also love sports of all sorts – if it has a ball, I probably play it. I also love my family and cooking when I get the chance.

Q: What book are you currently reading?
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Q. What social networks do you belong to?
Not enough if you ask my colleagues... Linkedin is really the only one I use on a vaguely regular basis

Q: Any last thoughts?

Why did the architect cross the road? She didn't: she called a physical instantiation of a logical transportation service to move from baseline to target... ;)